Sydney bus drivers defy union, take wildcat action - IIPM Think Tank

A six-hour strike by 130 bus drivers in western Sydney on August 28, 2009, carried out in defiance of their union, produced furious denunciations in the media and from an industrial court judge. The drivers protested against the imposition of new timetables that imposed shorter time for routes.

Drivers said the timetables would force them to run late and that would be the cause of inconvenience to passengers. They would also be under pressure to drive over the speed limit. Months of trade union talks with the company failed to halt the onerous new conditions. Angered by the lack of support from the Transport Workers Union (TWU), the drivers conducted their own stoppages, giving no warning to the union or management. The TWU opposed the strike and intervened to end it.

The mass media launched a scathing attack on drivers for halting services from the depot during the morning peak hour. Drivers called it ‘sheer hypocrisy’ saying passengers were frequently left stranded due to delays caused by the already overstretched timetables.

The Busways Group, owning these buses, is a large private operator, holding lucrative government contracts to run more than 600 buses, and employs more than 700 drivers, on 100 routes across Sydney and New South Wales Central Coast regions. Click here to read full IIPM Editorial

Like us and read IIPM Think-Tank articles on facebook

IIPM Think-Tank

Business and Economy

The Sunday Indian

Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri

Prof. Rajita Chaudhuri

4ps Business and Marketing

The Human Factor

IIPM-The Indian Institute of Planning and Management

IIPM Info Page

IIPM - Best Post Graduate Business Management Institute India

Oppressed and angry

The trade union movement in India is about a century old. However, Indian trade unions have a shorter history in comparison with those in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was only in 1851 that the first modern factory – a cotton mill – was set up in Calcutta. This marked the industrial beginning in India, which progressed very slowly. It took another 50 years for the trade union movement to actually take a formal shape.

During 1877, the working and living conditions of workers were inhuman, and as a result they went on a strike protesting against such grim conditions. This was the first strike (recorded) at the Empress Mills in Nagpur (Maharashtra) over wage rates. Between 1882 and 1890, 25 strikes were recorded in Madras and Bombay presidencies. These strikes took place spontaneously, though there were no formal organisations of workers. Click here to read more..

Read More IIPM Related Articles
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

Bihar government has approached the World Bank for loan to train school teachers in the state.

Teacher training and development is fast emerging as a key area where more attention and emphasis is required to ensure the educational standards go further up in Indian colleges and universities. The west has a fairly long history in focusing on academia development and perhaps for the same reason considered as a Mecca for students. Many institutes in the United States and Europe have devised short-term courses in learning, teaching and assessment to equip the teaching staff with techniques that help them deliver better.

As Elizabeth Jones writes in Growing Teachers: Partnerships in Staff Development (1993): “Teachers learn about teaching and learning by playing the teacher script, observing what happens, and discussing all the possibilities with other teachers. In this process, they come to see themselves as people who know thereby people capable of making appropriate choices for themselves and for children.”

In Training Teachers: A Harvest of Theory and Practice (1994), Margie Carter and Deb Curtis refer to the need for teachers to examine their own filters – the experiences and conditioning they bring to a teaching situation as well as examining their roles and strategies to see what role they play in their interactions with children.

In the United Kingdom, more teachers are to be trained ‘on the job’ rather than in universities, as announced by education secretary Micheal Gove recently. “The impact of these changes on initial teacher training will be revolutionary,” said Gove. A study by Graham Gibbs of Oxford University and Martin Coffey of University of Leicester – to see the impact of training of university teachers on their teaching skills – concludes that training can indeed increase the extent to which they adopt student focus. “Training of university teachers is now established in every university in the United Kingdom, Norway and Sri Lanka and is becoming increasingly common in many other countries. Click here to read more...

Read More IIPM Related Articles
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

Teaching is an art because each teacher has his or her own strength and own way to be effective.

Q. And, how can you gauge the effectiveness of the teacher?

A. We need to do simple and practical assessments of how students learn and by what processes they learn effectively. For instance, when Sesame Street started, the plan was to have people as instructors because it was believed that a focus on people would be more effective in creating learning amongst students. Since the people at Sesame Street were open to testing that question, they compared the engagement levels by replacing human beings with muppets. Contrary to their expectations, they found that a muppet was of much higher interest to students than people. Hence, we see all the famous muppets that are part of Sesame Street, like Big Bird and Elmo.

Q. Do you feel that curriculum today is an attraction to the youth or is there a change required to draw them towards making career in different fields?

A. Curriculum definitely needs to be changed. We need to modify it so that it has diversity built into it, which will enable people to learn in the ways that are most effective. With dynamic curricula, a teacher becomes an important practitioner who is helping to figure out the ways learning, goals and interests vary amongst students.

Q. What reforms in academia do you see as the need of the hour?

A. Most important – we need to move away from teaching everyone in one way and focus on how students learn effectively in different ways. I have worked with a number of schools and the most effective institutions have been the ones that deal with student differences. These are the schools that focus on each student and his or her most effective learning methods.

Q. Today best teaching and learning resources are available in English. Does language create a barrier between the seeker (not so proficient in English) and focus of knowledge on English? If yes, how can the teacher help?

A. There is research today that demonstrates that multilingual people are more flexible in their thinking skills. Evidence shows that they are more flexible and adaptable in their learning strategies. If teachers can honour different languages and build on the natural flexible thinking ability that comes from being multilingual, educationists can bridge this gap and take advantage of the cognitive flexibility that comes with being multilingual. Click here to read full interview...

Read More IIPM Related Articles
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

Building the nation with teachers

Q. What are the factors that draw one towards teaching?

A. The factors keep changing at different levels of education. Unfortunately, school-level teaching is stereotyped as a woman’s job because handling young children is not considered to be a part of the male’s domain. Therefore, it is comparitively easier for women to get into the education sector.

The Sixth Central Pay Commission has made much difference in the higher education sector. Today, at an entry level, an assistant professor usually gets a salary, which is much better than what was in old days, absence of which acted as a filter then. People who believed in materialism did not join this sector.

Q. What does this role entail?

A. For many, teaching is not a preferred profession. However, to be in this sector one has to possess a firm belief in academics. It is not just about being in the world of books, but it entails thinking, sharing, the desire to teach and valuing feedback from learners. Poeple interested in research work often join the industry. Along with patience that research requires, there should be inspiration and desire to work.

If one aspires to be a school teacher, one needs to empathise with children and should be willing to work with them. People who are not very comfortable with children would not want to enter the profession. Training teachers programme can teach the maxium but senstivity towards with students’ need has to come from within. Click here to read more...

Read More IIPM Related Articles
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face

Quality is the best policy

Q. What was the thought process behind the brand ‘Rockland’?  

A. We started with the vision of building Rockland as the most trusted healthcare brand nationally and internationally. Our aim was to provide quality services at the most reasonable rates. Establishing a brand is a gradual, tenuous process that requires perseverance, respect for people and high quality standardised services.

Q. Has Rockland been able to meet the requirements of its customers and employees? How correct is the perception that private hospitals are too expensive today? 

A. Rockland has not only been innovative in providing world-class facilities to its customers but also in providing a healthy work environment to its employees. A secure environment that ensures growth of the individual employee through training and other programmes also helps the organisation grow. We lay emphasis on the need to attract and retain our employees for a long period of time. Click here to read full interview...

Read More IIPM Related Articles
Zee Business Best B-School Survey 2012
Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri's Session at IMA Indore
IIPM IN FINANCIAL TIMES, UK. FEATURE OF THE WEEK
IIPM strong hold on Placement : 10000 Students Placed in last 5 year
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
Professor Arindam Chaudhuri - A Man For The Society....
IIPM: Indian Institute of Planning and Management
IIPM makes business education truly global
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM B-School Facebook Page
IIPM Global Exposure
IIPM Best B School India
IIPM B-School Detail
IIPM Links
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face